Third Sony Attack Thwarted, Sony May Offer Cash Rewards for Info

On Thursday, a CNET reporter was told by a member of a hacker group (via an IRC chatroom) that another major attack against Sony's servers was planned, which would pull customer names, credit card numbers and addresses of PSN users, and post them all online. Later that day, the reporter wrote about the details of her exchange with the hacker on CNET's website.

It seems publishing the article was enough to spur Sony to action, taking the proper defensive measures and blocking out the hackers.

"Apparently Sony saw that article because the last server that I could access is offline now," an anonymous source told CNET. "its probbably (sic) being patched like the other servers. There goes our window."

In related news, Sony may be offering cash rewards to anyone offering up information on the original hacking attempt in April. So far, Sony has worked with FBI, U.S. Congress and various private security groups, but it may start looking for the public at large. According to CNET, Sony hasn't confirmed whether itwill go through with offering a reward or how much money would be involved.

With Capcom (among other publishers) potentially losing millions in revenue and Sony's stock price plummeting, Sony will have to make some bold moves if things don't start looking up.